And last but certainly not least, from the
Columbus Dispatch archives comes this story about the 1996 proposal for Columbus' own
SERPENT BRIDGE...

March 19, 1996, by staff reporter Mary Stephens:

The giant snake proposed for the Broad Street Bridge is probably dead, and Franklin County
Engineer John Circle has blue glass scales all over his boot heel.

An application for $700,000 in federal money to put artwork - either a giant, blue-glass
serpentine canopy or a series of bronze globes and cartoonish figures - on the bridge was ranked
dead last out of 34 hopefuls by a review committee of the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Only the top nine applications in the category of historical or archaeological projects were
awarded money.

Although Circle technically was the applicant for the funding, he helped put the kibosh on
the project by telling the transportation department he thought either of the proposed artworks,
but particularly the snake, would be difficult to maintain and inappropriate for the 6-year-old
bridge.

A department spokesman confirmed that Circle's reservations about the two art proposals,
chosen by a jury impaneled by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, influenced the selection
committee's decision.

When the selection committee considered the bridge art proposal, "neither (artwork) was felt
to be compatible with the historic district" in which the bridge lies, said Howard Wood, spokesman
for the department's Bureau of Environmental Services.

Failure to get the federal money doesn't automatically kill the idea of art on the bridge,
but it means supporters will have to beat the bushes much harder for private donations.

Fund-raisers faced an uphill battle even if the federal funding had been approved. Initial
estimates called for the project to cost $1 million, but the two designs chosen as finalists were
both expected to cost more than $3 million.

"I'm glad that the air has been let out of this thing, " Circle said yesterday.

While Circle supported the idea of art on the new bridge from its inception, and his office
gathered $140,000 in corporate and private donations several years ago, he wasn't happy with the
direction taken after he turned the art selection and fund-raising over to the Arts Council.

Circle said he found plenty to love in the more than 50 artists' ideas that had been
submitted for the bridge over the years. But when the art jury's formal competition narrowed the
field to the snake, the bronze figures and a large lighted abstract sculpture that looked like a
ski jump, he was less comfortable.

"I was suddenly in the minority, but I couldn't back out then, " Circle said. "I couldn't do
it on the basis of the art alone, because that's not my area."

Circle said he is obligated to spend at least the $140,000 on art for the bridge but doesn't
have immediate plans.

Historic preservation consultant Nancy Recchie, who is coordinating the bridge art project
for the Arts Council, was disappointed and frustrated yesterday.

While the council probably will go ahead with plans for the two finalist artists to present
more-refined versions of their proposals in May, "there aren't a lot of sources for public art
funding, " she said.

Recchie called it "interesting" that ODOT rejected the project based on incompatibility with
the bridge's historic district, citing the fact that historic preservationists served on the art
jury, and that the Arts Council made every effort to explain to ODOT how the project fit into the
bridge's historic theme.

The two finalists - serpent designer Todd Slaughter, an associate professor at Ohio State
University, and New York sculptor Tom Otterness, who designed the bronze figures - were each given
$25,000 last fall by the Arts Council to refine their ideas.

Circle said he found it "atrocious" that the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation
Efficiency Act is setting aside 15 percent of highway funding for such enhancement projects in the
first place.

"It was way out of proportion, " he said of the percentage.

The federal law was authorized for six years and generated about $13 million each year in
Ohio for such things as landscaping, bike and pedestrian paths and historic preservation, Wood
said.

In this final round, the transportation department approved $2.43 million for historic
projects, $3.85 million for scenic improvements and $3.89 million for bikeways and pedestrian
paths.

Winning Franklin County projects include $443,885 for landscaping 1.54 miles of I-670 between
I-71 and Leonard Avenue and $710,900 for 4 miles of bike path along Rt. 745 in Dublin.